Maple Valley's Brandi Carlile Packs The Moore Theatre

"Because even when I was flat broke--you made me feel like a million bucks"

To say that we were "high" at Brandi Carlile's concert this weekend would not be an exageration, our tickets, purchased just before the local singing sensation's second Seattle gig this year sold out, were all the way up in the second balcony, not far from the roof in Belltown's aging Moore Theatre.

Not only did Carlile sing to us, the audience sang to her as they knew, either by the Seattle Times article from that morning, or by following her religiously, that it was her birthday. After a few stray calls of "Happy Birthday Brandi", everyone started singing "happy birthday" to her and Brandi looked overwhelmed by the crowd's enthusiasm. It was not the only singing we would do as the rising sensation who can go from Joni Mitchell to Janis Joplin in 0 flat moved and encouraged the audience to participate. Brandi who spoke to the audience after every song, made the evening seem like a night at a campfire. Especially since it was so hot in the area of the Moore that we were sitting.

One of highlight of the evening was when she sang her catchy acoustical piece "What Can I Say" without benefit of the microphone. That demonstrated the acoustics of the theatre. Brandi is ably backed up by twin guitarists Phil and Tim Hanseroth, who are also do backing vocals and write many of her songs. A session drummer, Jason Maybell and a cellist Josh Neuman round out the band.